


gotta be stronger than the story

by Suicix



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Community: femslashficlets, F/F, Internal Conflict, Light Angst, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 21:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7071142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suicix/pseuds/Suicix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Becky still isn’t entirely sure how it happened. Her and Nikki, her and the goddamn Divas Champion. They’re supposed to be rivals, bordering on being enemies. She doesn’t want it to be like that, doesn’t want it to be like that with anyone – just wants friendly competition in the ring and actual friendships behind the scenes – but it’s what’s demanded of life in this business, as hard as she tries to avoid it.</i>
</p><p>Written for <a href="http://femslashficlets.dreamwidth.org/85504.html">Challenge #061</a> - "choice" - at Femslash Ficlets on Dreamwidth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	gotta be stronger than the story

**Author's Note:**

> set summer 2015.

Becky still isn’t entirely sure how it happened. Her and Nikki, her and the goddamn Divas Champion. They’re supposed to be rivals, bordering on being enemies. She doesn’t want it to be like that, doesn’t want it to be like that with anyone – just wants friendly competition in the ring and actual friendships behind the scenes – but it’s what’s demanded of life in this business, as hard as she tries to avoid it.

So – her and Nikki, another night and another hotel room, another few hours wasted away together.

They do talk, sometimes – about matches, about spearheading this revolution. Never giving anything away, of course, but it’s still refreshing to get to share how she feels with someone other than Charlotte or Paige, someone who’s also been underestimated and overlooked, even if it’s for entirely different reasons to why Becky is. They’re different kinds of underdogs: Nikki because people thought they could shove her into a box of being here because she’s only after money and fame when she’s so much more than that; Becky because she _knows_ people think she’s a pushover who’ll give over a spot for nothing when she wants titles and glory just as much as the next person.

Nikki seems to recognise that part of her, though. Honestly, it’s probably why Becky feels so at ease around her, why she spends these secret nights with Nikki. Tonight, Nikki’s left the bed by this point though she’s not fully dressed yet, knelt on the carpet by her open suitcase.

“I guess you’ll be coming after this soon enough, huh?” she says, and Becky isn’t really sure what she means.

“Hm?” Becky lifts her head up off the pillow to get a better look at Nikki. She’s admiring her championship, its enticing silver glinting across at Becky all the way over on the other side of the room. “Oh, right. I’d love to, obviously, but I have the feeling that Paige and Charlotte will get there first.”

“Paige and Charlotte?” Nikki says, looking at Becky with a raised eyebrow. “Not you?”

It’s a question, and Becky isn’t quite sure how to answer. She wants to say _yes, me_ , but she really doesn’t know. She’d very much like to capture the title, or even just get a chance at it. She just doesn’t think she’ll be the one to get the opportunity.

“Well,” she begins, “of course I want to, but–”

“But what? You’re gonna have to make a choice someday,” Nikki tells her. “If you want to live in the shadows forever, or if you want to actually make a name for yourself.”

“So like what you did last year,” says Becky, remembering.

“Like that.” Nikki nods. “If you make a real rival of someone, it doesn’t have to be permanent. Look at me and Brie. We made up just fine. I got the spot I deserved, I got this title… leaving her behind for a while worked wonders for me. That’s the kind of thing you have to do to get what you want. And if you don’t, then people are gonna start saying that you don’t really want it.”

Becky swallows, hard. People already say that, and she knows it, but it’s – it’s more difficult than that. She wants to make an impact, but she wants to do it without burning bridges in the process. She already lost Sasha. She doesn’t want to lose Charlotte and Paige, too. Besides, she doesn’t have the same… the same _charm_ that Nikki has, that ability to pull people in with a lipsticked smile and the rhythmic drum of her nails on a title belt and even just the way she looks at you, so how’s Becky supposed to get those lost friendships back afterwards? After all, that’s why Becky’s even here anyway, isn’t it? Because Nikki’s magnetising, because there’s something ever so attractive about her glamour, about the secrecy of this all.

“It would be a shame,” says Nikki, slow, careful, and Becky looks back to her. “If you didn’t try. I think you might stand a better chance at getting through me than your two little teammates put together.”

It _would_ be a shame. Becky knows it would. She deserves the opportunity, just as everyone else does. Maybe even more, because she never truly let herself have it in the first place. She wants to articulate it, to show Nikki that she _does_ want it, that she’s someone to watch out for, but her mouth betrays her.

“I’m sure those two would do just as well as me,” she says, and the sad smile Nikki shoots her makes her heart sink the moment she lets the last word escape.


End file.
